After allocating his points, Lu Xingshi stayed for another three days before bidding everyone farewell and leaving Que Mi Village, intending to head for Youping County.
He was leaving because the bandit scourge around Youping County had already been wiped out. The news had been brought back by the villager who had delivered the Bearman's head.
The bandits' heads hung above the city gate, rotted beyond recognition.
Feng Gu was somewhat reluctant to see him go, still hoping to apprentice himself alongside Lu Xingshi. But Lu Xingshi could not possibly take Gao Li as his master; the platform Gao Li could offer him was far too limited.
Besides, Gao Li did not seem particularly fond of him. It was better for them not to interfere with each other.
Before leaving, Lu Xingshi traded the saber the village chief had given him as a quest reward for ten taels of silver and an ordinary-quality saber.
After seeing a weapon with attributes like the Yellow Sand Heavy Saber, Lu Xingshi truly found it hard to look favorably upon the saber the village chief had given him. Its quality was indeed better than an ordinary saber's, but not by much—its durability was only slightly higher, and it was a little sharper.
Against something like a Bearman, it was no different from an ordinary saber. Against weaker foes, a single slash would settle things anyway, making even less of a difference.
Seeing this, the other party also gave Lu Xingshi a martial arts manual called the "Primal Chaos Art." It sounded impressive, but it was actually common stock.
Its grade was slightly higher than his "Qi Guiding Art" and "Breathing Exercise."
Still, it was not so easy to obtain. Some small and medium-sized sects used it to lay foundations, its chief virtue being its balanced and peaceful nature.
Because his Three-Dimensional Attributes had reached 20 points, Lu Xingshi learned far faster than before. Most of his time was wasted turning pages.
And the moment he learned it, he brought all ten levels to completion. He did not even need to cultivate it. He was immensely pleased; with good aptitude, one truly could do whatever one pleased.
The attributes it granted were similar to those from the "Qi Guiding Art" and "Breathing Exercise." Fortunately, these attributes could stack.
This gave Lu Xingshi an idea: if he used a great number of low-level martial arts manuals and learned them directly, could he stack enough attributes to become powerful?
He could use basic cultivation methods to pile himself into an attribute monster.
It was a good idea, but there was one problem: the cost.
He had directly cultivated the "Primal Chaos Art" to completion, but there had been consumption as well. He had eaten quite a lot of food before pulling his Health Points back up.
"The vitality and blood attribute means exactly what it says. Regulating the breath should restore it, while inner breath is additional Inner Force capacity."
"That was why I got stuck at 21 points of Inner Force back then, making cultivation even harder."
"Now that I have the Primal Chaos Art, together with my 20 points of Physical Constitution, my Inner Force should be able to grow further."
Lu Xingshi circulated the Primal Chaos Art once and felt far more comfortable than he had with his previous two techniques.
"Could I create a cultivation method of my own?" Lu Xingshi suddenly thought of this.
Other people's cultivation methods could be used to stack attributes and effects, while a technique suited to himself could serve as his primary cultivation method, matching the unique nature of his Peerless Genius Innate Trait.
"There's no rush. I only have three cultivation methods right now, and they're all common goods." Lu Xingshi knew that creating a cultivation method required accumulation. His current Martial Arts Knowledge was insufficient to support such an undertaking.
His Comprehension was indeed high, but he still could not create something from nothing. Trying to derive the entire system of mathematics from a kindergarten arithmetic workbook was nothing but a wild fantasy.
Over the three days he spent traveling to Youping County, Lu Xingshi cultivated the "Primal Chaos Art" while studying himself.
After his Inner Force reached 51 points, he encountered a bottleneck. It was not exactly a bottleneck; rather, the proficiency required to increase his Inner Force rose sharply. After that, Lu Xingshi stopped cultivating it.
However, when the Primal Chaos Art was circulated with Inner Force, it possessed effects of healing injuries and nourishing the body. The effect was rather poor, but circulating it could restore his Health Points. Of course, doing so consumed Inner Force.
At this point, his Inner Force was roughly one-third that of the Desert Blade.
The Desert Blade's advantage lay in his saber techniques, not his Inner Force. It might also have been because the quality of his internal cultivation method was not high.
Of course, it was even more likely that this was an advantage granted to Lu Xingshi by his Peerless Genius Innate Trait.
When the words "peerless" and "genius" were placed together, they had never meant anything ordinary.
Upon arriving at Youping County, Lu Xingshi also saw the bandits' heads hanging above the city gate, displayed as a deterrent.
After entering the city, the soldiers guarding the gate saw that Lu Xingshi looked like a martial wanderer and did not stop him. They did not even charge him an entry fee.
This was one of the minor privileges afforded to martial wanderers.
Youping County was far larger and more prosperous than Floating Goose Town.
But this prosperity looked like nothing much to Lu Xingshi. A commercial street in modern society could utterly crush this entire county town.
If this had been a high-martial Martial Arts World, it might have been worth seeing. But in a low-martial Martial Arts World, there truly was not much to look at.
"Give me a copy of the Rumor Report." Lu Xingshi entered a rather ornate shop by the roadside. It was called Rumor Hall, something like a newspaper office, though most of its contents concerned matters of the martial world.
From Youping County, Lu Xingshi also learned quite a few things about the martial world.
For instance, the great powers under heaven were divided into One Emperor Two Sects, Three Cold Weather Gates, and Five Veins Under Heaven.
The One Emperor referred to the Imperial Awakening Palace of the Great Song Dynasty Court. It only accepted members of the imperial family, so it was rather mysterious, and little news ever emerged from it.
The Two Sects were the True Martial Sect and the Heart Chan Sect. The two faced each other from north and south, and were considered genuine great sects.
Next came the Three Cold Weather Gates, whose origin had once stood shoulder to shoulder with the True Martial Sect and Heart Chan Sect. Later, it split into three sects. The Five Veins Under Heaven were similar, except they had banded together for warmth.
In terms of strength, aside from the Imperial Awakening Palace, which held an extraordinary position after being bolstered by imperial authority, the truly powerful forces were the True Martial Sect and the Heart Chan Sect.
However, the masters of the two sects were both National Preceptors of the Great Song Dynasty Court, assisting the current emperor in governing. Lu Xingshi did not know what the actual situation was.
"Coming right up." The shop waiter called out before handing Lu Xingshi a copy of the Rumor Report.
After paying, Lu Xingshi picked it up and began reading.
A voice came from beside him. "Young friend, what are your thoughts on the recent Tianshan Sword Debate?"
Lu Xingshi turned and saw an old man whose hair had already gone white.
"I'll watch it standing up," Lu Xingshi replied. He was merely a tiny fry in the martial world—what did he know about the Tianshan Sword Debate? He had not even recognized more than a few of the participants.
That answer caught the other man completely off guard.